Editor:
Dear Ms. Diana Alvarado (U.S. Postal Service),
This letter is sent to inform you and other U.S. Postal Service officials of my extreme displeasure and opposition to the planned closure of Santa Monica's main postal center located at 1248 Fifth St. in Santa Monica, Calif.
It is my whole-hearted opinion that the closure of our city's historic postal center will be a disaster for our great community and will rip the long-time heart of our city from our community.
As a long-time resident and a post office box holder for over 20 years, I know that our main postal center is a focal point of our community and has long been a landmark in Downtown Santa Monica. Under no circumstances should the U.S. Postal Service shut down our main post office, especially since or post office building is a historic building that was built during the Depression and has served as an important center-piece of our local community.
It also makes no fiscal sense to me to shut down our main post office since it is a profitable location that always makes money for the U.S. Postal Service. It is an asset, not a liability both to the U.S. Postal Service and our community. To shut down a profitable place such as our main post office while leaving open unprofitable centers is bad policy and makes no sense at all. It makes much more sense for the U.S. Postal Service to close other less-profitable locations in our community instead of the higher-volume historic main post office in Santa Monica.
While I recognize that some people claim that a sale of our main post office is needed due to financial reasons, this is a false and politically motivated reason in my opinion. This so-called fiscal "crisis" was manufactured by the passage during the Bush era of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act which created a "crisis" designed to impose on the U.S. Postal Service onerous funding requirements that have never been imposed on any other governmental organization.
As a former real estate broker, I think that it is a terrible idea for the U.S. Postal Service to sell it assets in a down real estate market. The long-term fiscal impact of this potential sale will be greatly reduced as the re-located main post office will still have to pay for a new rental facility instead of existing in the current rent-free environment in a historic building that is the heart and soul of our Downtown.
In the alternative, I would strongly recommend that the moratorium on post office closures be extended for a longer period of time or indefinitely.
Due to the important and historic place that our main post office has in our community, I respectfully request that the U.S. Postal Service not close our main post office in Santa Monica.
Tony Blain
Santa Monica
